The New Orleans Saints hope to buck a bad trend of the past two games when the team hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in Week 9.

While the Saints are on a five-game winning streak, the Saints run defense currently ranks 21st, allowing 120.3 yards per game.

And opposing rushing attacks found success in Weeks 7-8 to the tune of 338 total yards rushing and three touchdowns.

Coach Sean Payton during a Wednesday morning teleconference took a moment to point out the main culprit.

"I can say very, very specifically, there's been an explosive-like singular or two plays," Payton said. "In Green Bay, the first series; last week, there's an explosive (play).

"The minute you get a plus-50 run, you're almost always going to have a team that rushes for over 100 yards, your yards per carry is going to be high. But those are still runs that occurred, and so one of the things this week is we have to be better at eliminating the explosive plays defensively."

Led by rookie Aaron Jones' 137 yards rushing, which included a 46-yard run, the Packers amassed 181 yards, averaging 7.5 yards per carry, and two touchdowns in Week 7 against the Saints.

In Week 8, the Chicago Bears totaled 157 yards rushing, as running back Jordan Howard rushed for 102 yards, including a 50-yard run.

While there have been issues, Saints defensive tackle Tyler Davison believes the run defense has been solid outside of allowing the big plays.

"I feel like we've been doing a good job against the run, for the most part," Davison said. "There are just two or three plays a game that have been explosive runs.

"It's just a couple of little details here and there that we have to shore up every single play. Most plays, those details are taken care of."

Saints rookie free safety Marcus Williams agreed.

"Coming out each week, we always preach to eliminate those explosive plays because there's about five explosive plays that can determine a game," Williams said. "So, we eliminate those and we'll have way less yards."

When it comes to the yards rushing of the past two games, Davison cautions against reading too much into the final numbers.

He used the Bears game as an example, pointing out two big plays netted 96 yards when Howard broke free for 50 yards and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky scrambled for 46 yards.

"Of their 157 yards, 90 of them were on two plays," Davison said. "They had 31 rushing attempts, so they had 61 yards on 28 attempts."

The Saints' third-year defensive lineman has a point, of course, because outside of the two big plays, the Bears averaged a paltry 2.1 yards per carry.

Meanwhile, eliminating the big plays in Week 9 could go a long way in dealing with the Buccaneers, a team that currently ranks 29th in rushing with 81.1 yards per game.

"He's a strong runner with good balance," Payton said. "We've seen some real good games from him. He's a guy that you got to populate. He's got good vision; I think very good instincts as a runner and is someone that has played well versus us."

Davison agrees Martin poses a threat, especially when considering the sixth-year running back has 515 yards rushing against the Saints since 2012.

But the defensive tackle believes the defense has a chance to make the Buccaneers offense one-dimensional, provided there are not explosive plays on the ground.

"They haven't been running the ball as much as they have in the past," Davison said. "They've been a little bit more pass-happy, but that's only if we stop the run. We're going in with that mindset to play in and play out."